The Dark Knight Rises

Hello everyone. This is going to be a short review, but reviews are going to come in more quantity in the next few weeks.

I watched The Dark Knight Rises yesterday. I'll start this review off quick by saying that it wasn't as good as the second one. But it was still awesome.

I'll try my best not to spoil anything, here it goes.

Rises combines storylines from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. So before watching this movie, watch them, or at least brush up on your memory of them.

Anyways, the acting was amazing. All the main actors played their characters perfectly well. Anne Hathaway beat all predictions and played a sassy Catwoman excellently. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman: all legendary actors made this movie what it is. The bar was set high by Heath Ledger as Joker in the second movie, but Tom Hardy brought us another magnificent performance, as he did in other movies, such as Inception. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, also actors from Inception, were excellent.

The movie itself was written and directed well, but I felt as if some scenes were way too predictable. There were so many close calls, with someone bursting in at the last second to save the day. The story made a lot of references to and relied on Batman Begins, which I haven't watched in years. I was a bit clueless on the story, but reading up on it after the movie, it made sense.

The music was excellent, as with most Nolan films, but it did not live up to the expectations as I had from the 2nd movie.

Overall, I'd give this movie a 8.5/10. If you like Batman, watch it!

2001: A Space Odyssey

Hello my peoples, I am back with another exciting review of one of my newly found favorite movies. 2001: The Space Odyssey contemplates the mysteries of the universe, and being made in 1968, was a very early film on this topic. Now, I normally don't talk about the story, but this one just needs it.

Now, this movie is not for the impatient. If you're looking for a quick thrill, this is definitely not for you. This is also my one criticism with this movie. The long drawn out scenes of spaceships backed by The Blue Danube Waltz will probably ward off many people. Even I think that it was excessive. My one theory is that it was just a show off for their amazing special effects.  [spoilers past here, skip to next paragraph for review] Nevertheless, the movie starts out with a tribe of man-apes. After being warded off by a rival tribe from their water hole, they are forced to retreat. Upon the dawn of the next day, they are greeted with a gigantic black monolith. Howling, the tribe reluctantly approaches the rock and begin touching it. This rock is one of the main symbols of this film. The movie cuts to a scene where feeding upon the bones of a dead animal, the leader realized his new ability to use tools. They go back and retake their old water hole, bellies full of raw meat taken from the animals they killed. The next scene begins with a space montage. Then it shows Floyd Heywood, an astronaut traveling to the moon base Clavius. According to other astronauts, there has been an epidemic at that base, and communication has been cut off. When Heywood arrives, it is revealed that they have discovered a strange magnetic rock. The same as the ones the man-apes had found. Now, the movie's most exciting (which is not saying much) sequence begins. Aboard a spaceship destined for the far reaches of Jupiter, Dave Bowman and Frank Poole are relatively bored. Manned by the supercomputer, HAL 9000, known for its mistake proof record, they don't have to do much. But when HAL 9000 reports an error which turns out to be a mistake, well, I don't want to spoil that much for you, but the rest is history. 

The thing that first drew me to this movie was the connection between the last scene and my favorite band, Pink Floyd. Their song Echoes apparently matched up perfectly with the last sequence of this movie. I had to try this out, and it was amazing. The song is truly spectacular anyways, but listening to it while watching a journey through the stars was just, amazing. To any Pink Floyd fans, I highly recommend watching the whole movie just to experience this. The cinematography was great for its time, and the special affects were astounding! The acting was perfect. The sounds of the movie was spot on. I heavily recommend this movie to anyone that could withstand its boring first-half. If you do, this movie is worth it, and the end will not let you down. This movie gets a 9/10. Thank you Stanley Kubrick for this influential masterpiece.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Yarr mateys. Ye heartys would like t' hear a review on th' best shipmate movie o' th' 21st century?

Today I will be reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Right off the bat, I'd like to say that this is the best movie in the series by far.

The acting was really good. It wasn't the best, but Johnny Depp, as always, redeems any crappy acting of the other characters. He executed his character perfectly. If you don't know Jack Sparrow - I mean Captain Jack Sparrow, I heavily recommend that you watch this movie just for him. Johnny Depp plays the eccentric and puzzling pirate accurately. He gets all the facial gestures and little quirks stunningly well. And to top it all off his face is perfect for the role. Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swan, and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa are also amazing, but Johnny Depp knocks them out easily.

The special effects were great as well. The boats looked awesome, and the skeletal versions of the Black Pearl crew were smooth and awesome. The sword fighting choreography was perfect and fluid. The soundtrack is magnificent, the famous "He's a Pirate" being included.

Overall I give this movie a 9/10. It's great fun for anyone around and above their teenage years. Definitely watch this movie!

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Hello once again, my readers, today I will be reviewing the concluding part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

The special effects were excellent. While there's a few little things that are off, overall they're excellent. The most impressive thing about them is the grandiosity. This isn't a small or simple scene; it often includes filmed actors and action combined with thousands of digital characters , sweeping landscapes, and dozens of things happening at once. This is a good reason to see it in theaters or in high definition, there are little things that you can only notice in these viewing methods.

The filming is also magnificent. Again and again this trilogy blows my mind with the beauty of New Zealand. It serves as a great backdrop for this type of story, being very lush and green in some places, and very rocky and rugged in others.

All the sound effects are very well executed, sound suitable, and are generally loud. The Nazgul screeching felt very real, in the way that it hurt the characters' ears as well as mine. Most everything has a distinct sound, and it's rare that anything feels out of place. Howard Shore's soundtrack once again proves to be one of the best.

The acting was, as always excellent. But for me, Viggo Mortesen as Aragorn and Sean Astin as Sam blew me away. They performed their roles precisely and perfectly, and came away giving a good picture of the characters. The other characters didn't seem to execute their roles as well as these two, but they were still excellent. My one criticism is that Elijah Wood as Frodo seemed to be stuck with the same facial expression throughout the whole movie.

My, and probably most other peoples' favorite scene would have to be the battle at Minas Tirith. The awesome scope of the battle, with the special effects, sounds, and many close-ups of the action, make for a more than exciting scene. The visual effects are  especially stunning. There's also some wide shots with tens of thousands of digital characters marching on the battlefield, and it makes you think how dedicated and precise the special effects team was during this incredible scene. It's worth the price of the movie to simply to watch this on a large screen. 

This movie was awesome. It concluded one of the, if not the greatest trilogy I have ever watched. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, and would give anything to go watch it on a big screen. This movie deserved 9.5/10, and that is what I give it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Welcome once again my readers. Today I will be reviewing this excellent movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. As I have missed almost two weeks due to finals and other things, I have tried to write a much more developed review, and I hope you will enjoy.

The opening scene of The Two Towers is an amazing, but brief action scene, only surpassed by the grandiosity of the final scene. The events of the third hour of The Two Towers are undoubtedly the centerpiece of the film. Though the first few hours serve as story development, they primarily build anticipation for the final hour, which mostly depicts the battle of Helm's Deep. 

The road to the battle of Helm's Deep can be gruelingly long and painful for any viewer aware of the breathtaking scenes that await towards the end of the film. The Two Towers' biggest mistake is in its own accomplishments; the first two thirds of the film are spectacularly shot, well paced, and they necessarily and adequately progress the storyline. But when compared to the marvelous final hour, the first two hours seem uneventful and insignificant. 

The Two Towers obviously begin where The Fellowship of the Ring left off. The majority of the film follows four groups and their story lines. Frodo and Sam, who are later accompanied by Gollum, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, Merry and Pippin, and Saruman and his army, all go through important journeys. The performances live well up to the first film, with a particularly notable performance from Mortensen as Aragorn, whose role is significantly larger in The Two Towers. Gollum also shines in a large role, due to extremely realistic computer animation, and a great performance from Andy Serkis, upon which the animation was modeled. In Fellowship, it was appropriate to consider Gollum one of the many great special features of the film. However, he is more of a main character and his convincing dual-personality, harsh voice, and well-developed body movements make him consistently the center of focus of nearly every scene in which he appears.

As was The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers is a visual phenomenon. Those who have seen the first movie are no doubt familiar with the beauty of the landscapes of New Zealand. The cinematography is one of the best aspects of the film. The camera movements that follow the armies and horsemen throughout the fields are extremely satisfying. The shots of the walls being attacked in the battle of Helm's Deep are terrifying and chillingly gorgeous all at once. While the visual effects in the previous movie were outstanding, the battle of Helm's Deep provides for the best application of CGI from the beginning of the series. The battle of Helm's Deep features absolutely awesome and flawless integration of acting, stunts, and computer animation. Each orc appears to have its own personality, demonstrated in its movements and visual features. The multitudes of armies fight with strategy and true character.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, I was slightly disappointed with the soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely amazing, but I felt it lacked the ability to capture all of the emotions conveyed throughout the movie. However, Howard Shore steps it up in The Two Towers, with a riveting score, making up for the previous faults of Fellowship.

If not the picture itself, there should be a way to recognize and award the battle of Helm's Deep. Alone, the battle sequence represents successful filmmaking in its highest form. The visual effects, the pacing, acting, cinematography,  the choreography of the battle, and the music, all work together in perfection to achieve incredible filmmaking which is as entertaining and enjoyable as film can be. For this very reason, I give this movie a 9.5/10. This series has so far proved to be one of the best, both in story and the quality of the movie.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Hello everyone! This will be the first part of my 3 part review on the amazing Lord of the Rings series. I'm a big fan of the books, but never watched the movies seriously because of their drastic length. But over the course of three days, I watched the first two movies, and I got to say: they were great!

Well, I was lucky enough to be able to watch a Blu-ray version of this, and see it in its 1080p grandiosity, which brings me to my first point: cinematography. This movie's cinematography was excellent. The pans over mountains and woodlands were spectacular. Seeing every beautiful landscape and every imperfection in the characters' faces made this movie so many times better. Of course I already knew the story, and I have to say, this is probably one of, if not the best, book to movie adaptations every made. Obviously it did not follow the book even close to 100%, but overall it was still magnificent. The acting was also excellent. Almost all of the characters were cast very similarly to what I thought they would have looked like. I always thought Saruman would look like a more pointy nosed and evil version of Gandalf, and I was right. The only characters that came off strange to me were the hobbits, but I didn't know what to think when reading the book, and after a while, they came off very naturally. Aragorn was perfect, a long haired sword wielding adventurer with a bit of a strong but silent vibe. Gimli and Legolas were also great, but after watching Game of Thrones, Boromir seemed out of place. And for its time, Gollum was perfectly animated. The soundtrack was also outstanding. It brought emotion the movie, which many other soundtracks fail to do.

I give this movie a 9.5/10. It has become one of my favorite movies, but it has its faults. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, even those who have not read the books.

In Bruges

Welcome everybody. This is my first post in a couple of weeks because I have been busy, but I am here to bring you another long-awaited review. This is the movie In Bruges, directed by Martin McDonagh and released in 2008.

In Bruges. Two Irish hit men (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) are sent into hiding by their British boss (Ralph Fiennes) in Bruges, Belgium after a botched job only to learn that the most damning job awaits one of them just around the corner. Bruges is a picturesque tourist trap built around the oldest and best maintained medieval city in Belgium. Director and screenwriter Martin McDonagh bleeds the setting and the material for all its worth and makes his feature film debut in superb style.

The dark comedy built around the existential quandaries of hit men has been done to death over the years. If last summer's "You Kill Me" was the relentlessly dark and relentlessly sitcom-y take on the genre, then "In Bruges" is the hipster art film take on the theme. McDonagh deserves all the credit in the world for breathing life into the stale story by texturing the tonal shifts with crisp digital camera-work (that is surprisingly haunting), deep character development, and by creating a wonderful sense of place. Imagine a Graham Greene novel ("Brighton Rock" specifically comes to mind) modernized by David Mamet. The dialog is super smart and wickedly un-PC while the comedy parts are as gut-busting as the crime thriller parts are suspenseful.

McDonagh has also brought together an outstanding cast who thrive in the material. Farrell defies all odds and manages to be as sympathetic in the dramatic parts as he is charmingly sarcastic in the comedic parts. Brendan Gleeson gives a fantastically nuanced portrayal as Farrell's mentor and friend. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes channels the scary-as-hell energy he's used previously in "Schindler's List" and the recent "Harry Potter" films in a limber subversion that is a frighteningly fun to watch. The supporting cast is to die for, with Jordan Prentice spot-on as a coked-up dwarf actor shooting an abhorrent art film on the streets of Bruges, and Clemence Poesy coyly seductive and unforgettable as Farrell's unlikely local love interest.

Ultimately "In Bruges" meanders down too many cobblestone paths, and one scene near the end involving a bell tower stretches credibility but adds necessary dramatic effect. Certain plot elements will turn off a large segment of the viewing audience. However, those with the right mindset will be greatly rewarded. "In Bruges" is hilarious, contemplative, sometimes scathing, often nihilistic, but marked by a shockingly hopeful undercurrent while tones shift and the colors of the human condition undulate in McDonagh's insightful light. The arrival of a commanding talent has been heralded...in Bruges.

Sorry for the long delay of posts. I will soon be reviewing two great series, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, as soon as I finish watching them.